Recently, Rutgers University took a good deal of flak for paying Toni Morrison $30,000 to speak at its commencement ceremony, as such speakers are traditionally paid with only an honorary degree. Morrison is a world-renowned Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, known particularly for speaking out on the issue of race. Rutgers is also attempting to increase the scale of the event as a likely result of bringing such a high-profile figure to speak at its graduation. It has moved the ceremony to its football stadium, which seats approximately 56,000 people, and has invited all undergraduates to attend. To me, this expense is justifiable, as the money to pay for the speaker comes from PepsiCo rather than from tuition or tax dollars. The enlargement of the ceremony, too, shows that Rutgers is willing to make an investment to improve its graduation.

However, in an unjustifiable move, the Rutgers University Programming Association, a student activities organization, wasted a whopping $32,000 to bring Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, a star on MTV's reality television show Jersey Shore, to campus to conduct a question-and-answer session. To add insult to injury, Polizzi was paid from activity fees mandatory with Rutgers tuition, unlike the esteemed Toni Morrison. While the fact that a reality star was paid more to speak at a major university than a prize-winning author is certainly shocking, it is not the main grievance I take with this issue.

Schools pay exorbitant sums for entertainment; comedians and musicians have been known to charge much more than what Snooki did to appear on a college campus. These entertainers, however, are in national demand and are usually talented and quite popular among students. For the most part, they have worked for and achieved success in the field of entertainment, and their hard-earned success is something that university students should emulate.

While Snooki is undoubtedly quite popular, she lacks any semblance of talent or merit. In fact, it is quite obvious to anyone who has seen even a snippet of Jersey Shore that she and the rest of the cast are essentially professional morons-clowns, if you will. This type of entertainment is not the type that ought to be featured at an establishment of higher learning.

While college campuses are hotbeds of drinking, sex and drugs, schools should not pay people to speak if they conduct a lifestyle that revolves purely around these. Students attend college in order to learn skills that will give them legitimate jobs in the future, not to be told about how they can make millions with no such skills if they act stupidly enough to be put on a MTV reality show.

The fact that MTV pays people for the behavior in which Snooki and the rest of the cast of Jersey Shore engage in is, in my eyes, no more than petty prostitution. After all, what are they earning their money for other than sex and being idiotic inebriates?

In bringing Snooki to Rutgers and paying her such a large sum for speaking about her less-than-exemplary career, the students in RUPA and the university as a whole have given an implicit endorsement to such behavior. This is not the sort of thing that should be espoused at a major university.

There are those who will say that I should lighten up because this was only a "comedy" show for entertainment purposes. I, however, feel that we should view this through a broader lens and re-evaluate our sources of entertainment.

Over the past decade or so, we have all noticed the rise of reality television and the subsequent dumbing-down of the programs that we watch. Rather than laughing at those devoid of both intellect and talent, like the stars of Jersey Shore, simply for the amusement of their drunken antics, we ought to be enriching ourselves. I am not preaching that people stop watching television and instead build boats in glass bottles, but we should at least watch shows that do not glorify stupidity.

As funny as a bunch of juiced-up Guidos in fistcuffs and spoiled Guidettes bickering may be to watch, we should remember that in doing so we provide viewership to the actors involved and are encouraging MTV to continue the series.

The solution to cut the influence people like this have on America's youth is simple: If we stop watching these shows, their popularity will fade.